To me the BM VA 5" is the PERFECT budget monitor. BUTthere are things that would be additions that easily transport this lil inexpensive monitor into territory that would make it even more interesting for serious DPs.

I am talking: Downstream LUTs.Why doesnt the BM VA send the image downstream with a LUT applied? Especially for low budget peepz that would be awesome. Any old TV or non LUT Monitor can suddenly become a second grade production monitor.

BUT most importantly.There is no option to read exposure from the image with an LUT applied. I hear you people that do not do that, they want to see their crushed blacks and clipped highlights. So make it an option to toggle between (I know many very knowledgable DPs that actually do that).

I just cant light from that monitor, but I would like to, so very much.So thing is, I have to switch to SmallHD if that`s not going to happen.

Yes, I mainly use False Color. But it measures pre LUT. Which is not what I want. I want to measure exposure levels from a final tweaked LUTted image. I want to spread all the values where I want them to be on set. Not in post. Thats not really possible atm.

aIf you are not truthfully progressive, maybe you shouldn't say anythingbTruthful side topics in-line with or related to, the discussion acceptedcOften people deceive themselves so much they do not understand, even when the truth is explained to them

Your request doesn't seem rediculous. Mine is based on business strategy, forming a handheld camera with a 4 point 3D POV head that can mount on a pole, or discrete places. Such heads can be 5mm thick by 2/3rds frame size (over 12 mm). But a s35mm to imax medium format (around 65mm wide) are possible. It hardly adds anything to the size of the an assist just stick on the back iron the case. There are processing platforms to handle this, even in 8k, that could enable a 8k pocket camera (if only the small sensors were available cheap enough). In post you can make focus, aperture, shape, color a lighting in 3D. That is revolutionary. Make one choice on set and another in post if you don't like it. Set lighting for scenes with dynamic lighting added on screen with vitlrtual lights is possible (but don't know if the processing solution for a pocket camera can handle this). They also have patents for a bigger version. Should be excellent fir special effects and 3D body motion capture.

Except for things like in camera dynamic virtual lighting, these are the sorts of things the Red hydrogen phone with multipoint camera module should enable. Except there is a possibility there for a competitor. You have to pay for the phone in phone factor and the module. It is likely cheaper to use a mass market chipset, like the one I'm suggesting, and build everything into one single pocket unit with some small phone sensors. There is a $1000AU product if you don't go overboard.

aIf you are not truthfully progressive, maybe you shouldn't say anythingbTruthful side topics in-line with or related to, the discussion acceptedcOften people deceive themselves so much they do not understand, even when the truth is explained to them

Tim, like Daniel mentions, the VA 5-inch is just a small on camera monitor designed for quick reference and framing the shot, and recording ProRes, etc in HD format, as an option to DSLR internal compressed recording codecs. To get accurate exposure levels, with Luts downstream, you would be better off with either a reference video monitor or a scope monitor, that can measure the displayed values accurately.

Adding more features like this to the small VA5-inch would increace its price to over $1K. Another (more expensive) option is the Video Devices Pix E, available in 5 or 7-inch, with much better audio support. But again it cost almost twice what the VA 5-inch does. So you kinda of get what you pay for.Cheers

I wouldn't hold my breath on any changes to either VA. BM can't seem to find the resources to add file names based on unit id, something I would have thought they could have given to an intern to fix. If they can't even do that... what in the world makes you think they can do anything else.

My impression of the BM software dev shop is that it has ground to a halt.

I work a lot with movies for social media and use a lot of strange aspect ratio in my footage.

I would like to be able to create other frame guides than those that are preinstalled in my video assist. For exampel I would like to have 1:1, 4:5 and 9:16 to be able to frame the shot right from the start.

If it's difficult to develop a feature in the software so you can create your own and upload to the video assist like you do with LUTs today, maybe it would be possible to add a fram guide that is 1:1, that's the most important that i miss today.

I think the VA will display grids, if so, this would give you a 1:1 guide, or close to it. Another option is to take some black film material and make a mask to cover the VA screen with the desired guide. Translucent gel material would also work. Just a little gaffer tape to hold it on — and Bob’s your uncle Cheers

Denny Smith wrote:I think the VA will display grids, if so, this would give you a 1:1 guide, or close to it. Another option is to take some black film material and make a mask to cover the VA screen with the desired guide. Translucent gel material would also work. Just a little gaffer tape to hold it on — and Bob’s your uncle Cheers

Yes the BM VA can show grids but how do you mean I can see a frame guide 1:1 in this? The grid is devided in thirds vertical and horizontal so it's 9 boxes.

The thing I want is to know how much that will be croped later in post on the right and left side to get 1:1 aspect ratio. So I don't cut important stuff by mistake when shooting

And yes I can use tape but It's no good when I want to see for example the histogram thats in the corner of the screen. So that's why I want a 1:1 along with the other frame guides. (Today I use 4:3 but then I will crop more than that in post)

The two vertical lines are close to a 1:1 crop on the sides, and disregard the horizontal lines and boxes.The left and right vertical lines are close, but not quite on the mark for the 1:1 crop from the or 1:1.Cheers

Denny Smith wrote:The two vertical lines are close to a 1:1 crop on the sides, and disregard the horizontal lines and boxes.The left and right vertical lines are close, but not quite on the mark for the 1:1 crop from the or 1:1.Cheers

Ok, but still hope for a 1:1 from BM in new firmware so I got it on the mark

And the benefit having it in the center is to be able to move the footage both ways on the X-axis in post with some footage outside the 1:1.

Out of all of the requests I still think that having LUTs on the outputs would be great.

Not only for something like a client monitor, but also if you are someone like me using an el cheapo HDMI evf with no lut support and using the VA 5" as a signal converter, amongst its other features as well.

Hi - so guys: are there any small monitors that send a LUT downstream? I love my 5"s but I'm happy to grab one from Atomos or SmallHD to get a LUT on there. I'm just having a hard time finding that spec online.

Denny Smith wrote:The SmallHD Foxus, 501and 501have an image overlay also, a still shot is saved to the monitor’s SD card, than you can overlay it on the screen, to line up repeating or split screen shots.Cheers

Well, if you need it now... BM is not currently supporting these features on the VA. An image overlay requires a second buffer or another SD card to read the still overlay frame from. If you use the VA as a monitor only, and if the VA can support writing a single frame capture to its SD card, to use for the overlay, then it might be possible. But, BM has not implemented this or outputting a LUT display on either model of the VA to date. Cheers